I've been taking an interest in this story LOHAN because for their previous project PARIS I modeled the aircraft in SketchUp for them.

Anyway, the guys at Southampton Uni are designing their latest spaceplane, and they use 3T RPD to print their designs. This company is UK based, and promises delivery times of 8 days or less, so I thought I'd get a quote from them. I sent my latest design to them, and they quoted five times the price of Shapeways for the same material (laser sintered nylon).

They asked why my pieces were hollow, and I explained that I was used to paying for the volume of material consumed. However, their quote was based on the volume the parts take up in the machine, so hollowing them makes no difference

So, it's still Shapeways for me.

Hi Gus,

Thanks for sharing and looking for alternatives for Shapeways!


- Splinter
(currently in design process for a puzzle to be put on Shapeways.... will be continued in a few months)

You should see what the price difference is for non hallow models.